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Editorials

Floods don’t know party labels, as Trump must come to understand: There would be little reason for Donald Trump, a New Yorker, to know much about Sacramento’s history. And infrastructure – such a dreary word – is not the stuff of cable news or Twitter. But as we who live in the region understand, Sacramento is the most flood-prone American big city not called New Orleans.

Erika D. Smith: The latest example of such cringeworthiness is coming from the boomer-led Greater Sacramento Economic Council. Last week, the organization released a marketing video in an attempt to sell our city to mobile young professionals and up-and-coming creatives.

Dan Walters: One of the more interesting – as well as significant – episodes in Capitol lore occurred in the early 1970s when redrawing legislative districts imperiled a long-serving state senator, Randolph Collier. He and his Assembly counterpart – Willie Brown for many years – would secretly write a budget each year and present it as a fait accompli.

Daniel Weintraub: Donald Trump’s assurances given during the campaign and after the election put him on a collision course with Republican leaders in Congress, including Rep. Tom Price, the Georgia congressman the president-elect has tapped to be his secretary of health and human services.

Op-ed

Brian K. Landsberg: The American people have expressed a strong commitment to the cause of racial justice. As the U.S. Senate exercises its duty to advise and consent, it must assure itself that Sen. Jeff Sessions will interpret and enforce these laws to promote that commitment.

Take a number: 4

Presidents’ Supreme Court appointees are among their most lasting legacies. So it will be when Donald Trump nominates a replacement for late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, assuming that individual is confirmed. Trump will also help shape the law in the western United States when he fills four openings on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The bulk of the law gets made in the circuit courts. Because Democratic presidents have appointed 18 of the 25 sitting judges in the 9th Circuit, the San Francisco-based court has the reputation for skewing liberal. An article on the conservative Breitbart site claims liberals are in a panic about whom Trump might appoint. But The Recorder offers a smart and sober analysis, noting that “perhaps all the hand-wringing by court watchers on the left – and the salivating by those on the right – is a bit premature.” Here’s to hope.

Boston Globe: Massachusetts doctors are rethinking their opposition to aid-in-dying laws, as did the California Medical Society before the Golden State passed its law. So should the rest of Massachusetts.

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Most of the political debate over health care reform focuses on expanding coverage for the uninsured and making care affordable for working Californians. But there aren’t enough doctors across the state.